PRACTICUM REFLECTION

LYNN RICHARDS
2015
When I was asked to design a culminating capstone project that
summarizes my Masters of Instructional Technology program, I knew
exactly what my project would be. I am lucky to work for a district that
encourages their staff to be life-long learners. Because of their
financial and professional support, I have been able to accomplish my
goals and acquire the skills and knowledge to effectively provide the
best technology services to our district.
Through the work done in my Seminar in Educational Media, I realized
that the greatest challenge we face is bridging the gap between staff
members who are proficient in technology and staff members who are
not. The inconsistencies throughout the building are a huge barrier to
the overall digital literacy in our school. I am not sure what the solution
is to bridging this gap amongst our educators and hence, amongst our
students, but I know that limited time for professional development,
and resistance towards change play a huge role in the technology
proficiency of our community.
Since one of the greatest challenges we face these days is a lack of
time thats needed for professional development within the district,
and because of a recent focus on the Smarter Balanced Testing,
iObservation, and continued work on the Common Core Standards,
etc all staff workshop time is spoken for and technology needs are
not being met. During my Seminar last semester, I surveyed staff
members and educational colleagues from across the state and
concluded that a lack of technology related support was at an all-time
low. I find this to be quite ironic, as technology is integrated into most
every part of our lives. In my opinion, this should be a top priority.
We all need to continue to develop our professional practice and today
we learn from so many different sources and are no longer dependent
on a single source of knowledge. We also learn in many different
situations and contexts. When learning is a shared occurrence, each of
the participants can come away with much more than we might gather
on our own.
In thinking of a meaningful project that would give back to the RLRS
school community, the concept of an online PD course for staff
immediately came to mind. Lack of quality professional development
opportunities for staff continues to be a problem in our district. An
online course will give staff members the opportunity to earn 45 CEUs
(Continuing Education Units) for participating at their own pace and on

their own time schedule. Many co-workers live far from the school and
have families to tend to in the evenings, making attending a face-toface course impossible. Offering this course online will allow those who
enroll a bit more flexibility to complete assignments on weekends.
I have received a positive response from the school community and an
eagerness from staff members to take this course, which is
encouraging to me, considering the lack of enthusiasm for most other
staff trainings. I am optimistic that my efforts this semester will not go
to waste and that a large portion of our staff will take advantage of this
opportunity that is being offered to them. I am also hopeful that RLRS
will eventually extend this offer to students for a credit. My future plans
are to create other online courses, including an online course for our
HS students thats an introduction to online courses. Starting in grade
11, our students are given the chance to take online courses through
the University of Maine system. They enter in to this commitment not
knowing what to expect in an online course. I think its important that
students prepare themselves for a successful online experience and
creating a mini course for them would help them to discover their
strengths and weaknesses prior to registering for college courses in
which the grade will appear on their transcript.
I enjoyed having the chance to pore over my graduate program and
collect the resources that will be the most useful in our district. I am
confident that any staff member that enrolls in this course will improve
their professional practice and come closer to meeting all of the ISTENETS for both Teachers and Students.